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Natural cure for Alopecia Areata
There is a lot of buzz surrounding Korean red ginseng and hair growth, but does it work?  The family of ginseng roots have been used for 1000’s of years and the benefits are so popular, Korean red ginseng has been coined the “king of herbs.”
Six year red ginseng has 40x the the healthy content of its siblings and has the capability of boosting your immune system, increase energy levels, blood flow and memory functions.
There are 3 main types of ginseng; Oriental, Siberian and American.
American ginseng is probably the least popular and least used of the three types available, due to the American population never being huge users of the herb.
Oriental ginseng or panax has been used for thousands of years, contains the favored ginsenoside properties and has some proven efficacy for hair regrowth.
Lastly, Siberian ginseng is not the same herb as American and Panax ginseng, so buyer beware.  The Russians wanted to offer a supplement  to provide to athletes, but most studies have only been done in Russia.

Studies correlating hair regrowth with ginseng:
Recent studies have been done to evaluate the efficacy of ginseng in the treatment of alopecia areata.  But does the research show that it really works?
Ginseng may promote hair grow because its believed to increase the number of dermal papilla cells in the scalp and preventing natural cell death.  It may also stimulate the scalp with improved blood flow to the area.Ginseng is even found in hair products such as shampoo and conditioners, but the efficacy has not been evaluated.
Clinical Study
Sang-Wook Son professor at Korea University College of Medicine had a study that included 131 subjects with Alopecia Areata.  One group was given the typical corticosteroid as a treatment and the second group was given corticosteroids and ginseng.  The studies proved to be more promising for those in the ginseng group, although not statistically significant.
But like its topical counterpart minoxidil, both minoxidil and Korean red ginseng are known to reduce blood pressure, so it is assumed that their efficacy is about the same. Korean red ginseng has a huge appeal for its drug free components.  Another player in the market is Vivisical an amino acid used to promote hair growth and density.  This product is noted to effectively promote hair growth.
 
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HAIR LOSS SOLUTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT US (817) 473-2120 OR EMAIL APPOINTMENTS@MARKBISHARAMD.COM TO SCHEDULE AN  APPOINTMENT.
 
   


 

What are stem cells?

Stems cells are the foundation of every organ and tissue in our body. Throughout our lives stem cells replace injured tissues and cells that are lost every day, such as those in our skin, hair, blood and the lining of our organs. Stem cells have the ability to change into other types of cells, making them essentially unprogrammed cells or “shape shifters”. Since stem cells can become bone, muscle, cartilage and other specialized types of cells, they are at the center of a new field of science called regenerative medicine. Stem cells harvested from a patient have the potential to replace countless cells of the body and are capable of treating diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, Autoimmune Diseases and more. They may heal the body by replacing cells plagued with disease or the inability to produce a healthy immune system response by regenerating healthy new cells that can.

Simple Example of stem cells

When we have a paper cut on our finger, the damaged cells that were cut release chemicals on their own called growth factors. These growth factors activate dormant stem cells in the surrounding tissue which produce new skin cells and heal the wound. Once it is healed, the stem cells again become dormant. Stem cell therapy works essentially in the same way to heal injuries and diseases.
Two simple things define stem cells:
• They can “self renew” – Meaning they can multiply and produce greater numbers of themselves.
• They can “differentiate” – Meaning they can develop and change into at least two different types of specialist cells that carry out a specific function.

4 Known Types of Stem Cells

• Adult Stem Cells – Derived from an adult human body.
Most commonly used stem cell for treatments and widely accepted. In instances where adult stem cells are obtained from the intended recipient, the risk of rejection is essentially non-existent. Consequently, more US government funding is being provided for adult stem cell research.
• Embryonic Stem Cells – Derived from embryos.
These cells require specific signals to differentiate to the desired cell type. If they are simply injected directly, they will differentiate into many different types of cells, resulting in a tumor derived from this abnormal pluripotent cell development. The directed differentiation of ES cells and avoidance of transplant rejection are just two of the hurdles that ES cell researchers still face.
• Fetal Stem Cells – Derived from aborted fetuses.
These have developed further than embryonic stem cells and are a little more specialized – their options are limited. However, they can still produce most types of cell in the body.
• Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) – From some parts of the human body.
These stem cells are engineered from older, fully specialized cells. Scientists encourage these limited cells to act like embryonic stem cells again, with the ability to become any type of human cell. This is a complex technique that has only recently been developed and is the subject of much ongoing research.

How is stem cell therapy administered?

Stem cell therapies are injected into the vein (intravenous treatment). There are two types of intravenous methods which are discussed below.
•Direct Injections – Injections administered directly into the site that needs repair such as muscles and tendons.
•Intranasal – Administered to a highly vascular pathway of the nose to encourage more stem cells to travel past the blood brain barrier.

what this means for Alopecia areata

Alopecia Areata is an auto immune disease where the immune system attacks hair follicles. It usually does not threaten health, but it can greatly affect the way a person looks. A patient that receives adult stem cell treatment injections (Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Treatment) will find that it will stimulate his / her immune system, promote cellular regeneration and improve symptoms associated with Alopecia. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) uses the patients’ own blood and processes it with a concentration of the body’s own cells which contain healing and growth factors.

alopecia areata Research

A blog published in Bernstein Medical Center for Hair Restoration detailed the success of a method that used hair cloning therapy to treat alopecia areata. The study was conducted by Marwa Fawzi, a dermatologist at the University Of Cairo Faculty Of Medicine, who used stem cells from the scalps of eight children with alopecia areata to regenerate their own hair.
Six months after the hair cloning treatment, the results showed a 50% increase in hair in more than half of the subjects. One of them, an 8-year-old boy, grew nearly a full head of hair after being almost completely bald before treatment.
After being convinced of the results, Dr. Fawzi analyzed the new skin samples on the head and examined the hair follicles themselves and found that the injected stem cells had migrated into the follicles. The stem cells stimulated the follicles to transition from a dormant phase to a hair-generating phase (just like our above paper cut example).
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